Citi’s human resources department is about to get very busy.

As the bank continues to reinvigorate its wealth unit, its latest push involves hiring more than 400 new advisors and personal bankers. Right now, the goal is less about attracting new clients and more about catering to existing ones. During Citi’s Investor Day last week, head of wealth Andy Sieg noted a $5 trillion opportunity to bring more existing-client assets in house, 60% of which lie among its mass affluent and high-net-worth retail banking and Citigold financial planning clients.

“This isn’t a build or expansion story, and it’s not an expensive bet on new client acquisitions,” he said. “We have the clients. Our challenge is to deepen the relationship by showing them what’s possible when they entrust more of their financial life to Citi.”

Get Back on the Right Track

Citi’s wealth unit has been in the midst of a lengthy turnaround effort ever since Jane Fraser took over as CEO in 2021. At the time, the business was viewed as lagging peers in several areas, and an audit cited high levels of complaints, low client trust and less advisor face-to-face time than the industry average. Even after Sieg joined the team in 2023 from Merrill Lynch, the next year appeared choppy as dozens of senior level executives resigned.

However, the train is still chugging along. In addition to the 400 client advisors, Citi plans to hire more than 200 small business advisors and update their product offerings, Sieg said during the event. It will also renovate branches to give them a modern design with more room for advisor-client meetings, a strategy JPMorgan announced last year as well. Plus, last month, Citi debuted Sky, an AI client-facing assistant that can summarize financial data and answer basic planning or market-related questions.

“This remains a business first and foremost about people, despite the fears about AI,” Jason Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants, told Advisor Upside. “The [recruiting] is a clear signal that they are embracing the business.”

Bank on It. Things do seem to be turning around for the wealth unit at America’s third-largest bank:

• Revenue in the unit hit $11.3 billion in 2025, up from $9.7 billion in 2024, according figures shown during the event.
• Total client balances reached almost $1.3 trillion last year.

“That’s a lot of progress, but candidly, we’re only about midway to what a strong wealth business should look like,” Sieg said.

They’re charging how much?!

We remember a time when there was no pain at the pump, a dollar slice of pizza actually cost a dollar and taking the family to Disney World didn’t feel like making a down payment on a Lamborghini.

Price increases have hit every industry, including wealth management. Financial advisors now charge an average retainer fee of roughly $6,800, a 52% increase from three years ago, according to a report from Envestnet and Datos Insights. It’s not simply that advisors are charging more for the sake of it. The profession has evolved from primarily investment management to financial planning, with firms of all sizes trying to offer the kind of white-glove service once associated mainly with family offices.

“Advisors are offering deeper, more comprehensive and more ongoing services, especially around tax strategies, retirement distribution, legacy planning and behavioral coaching,” said Matt Wilson, head of business strategy at Envestnet.

The AI Threat

Part of the shift to planning services is the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Nearly 70% of advisors cited AI and machine learning as a threat this year, up from 29% in 2023. “AI has moved from abstract to client-facing,” said Wally Okby, strategic advisor at Datos and author of the study. “Advisors are now sitting across from clients who’ve already run their own analysis, for better or for worse.”

The study also found that since 2023:

• Flat fees are up 15%, subscription fees have nearly tripled from $215 per month to $595 and asset under management bundled fees have actually ticked lower.

• RIAs are charging more in absolute terms, charging more clients and raising prices more aggressively than their non-RIA peers. The average RIA retainer fee is $7,550 compared to $5,237 for non-RIAs.

For the Kids. One major growth area is younger clients. The share of advisors with substantial millennial client allocations has nearly doubled in the past three years, with newer advisors leading the trend. Meanwhile, the percentage of advisors actively engaging clients’ children has jumped from 32% to 55%. It’s a segment that’s becoming increasingly important to advisors even if it means different fee models and a willingness to invest time in relationships that won’t be profitable for years, Okby told Advisor Upside.

“That’s an extremely hard ask for advisors already running full books,” he said. “But with the largest wealth transfer in history underway, the advisors who haven’t made that pivot are carrying real practice continuity risk.”

You get what you pay for.

Life insurance policies with low premiums are naturally attractive to clients. They seem like a good deal compared to more expensive options, but there’s a big reason why they cost less. Simply put, policies with low annual premiums are priced that way because they have a low probability of paying out, generally because they are structured as term insurance that has a set expiration date set well in advance of the purchaser’s actuarial longevity projection. Conversely, policies with what seem to be very steep relative premiums have a higher (or even effectively guaranteed) probability of paying out, generally because they are structured as permanent whole life insurance. It’s critical for financial planners to understand this dynamic, and even more importantly, to communicate these differences to clients.

This isn’t to suggest term policies don’t have value, said Bobby Samuelson, executive editor of the Life Product Review. Term life insurance provides affordable, temporary coverage for a set period, which can be helpful for covering debts like mortgages. Permanent life insurance, on the other hand, offers lifelong protection with a cash value component that can provide liquidity along the way, generally costing significantly more. In other words, term insurance is considered best for income replacement protection during working years, while permanent policies better suit long-term retirement and estate planning.

Insurance as an Asset Class

Within this general framework, financial planners are better off positioning high-premium permanent policies more as a long-term asset class to which one is making contributions, as opposed to a more traditional understanding of insurance categories like health, home or auto. In fact, Samuelson said, there’s a solid argument to be made that appropriately priced and structured permanent life insurance policies can supplement, or even replace, a fixed-income allocation in a long-term retirement portfolio.

“The inclusion of permanent whole life policies changes the efficient frontier,” Samuelson said. Essentially, including permanent whole life insurance shifts the efficient frontier of a retirement portfolio:

• The strategies can offer a low-volatility, tax-advantaged cash position, potentially allowing for increased equity exposure.
• Assuming it is held over long periods, a permanent policy functions as a true non-correlated buffer asset, reducing sequence-of-returns risk and enhancing sustainable income.

“With big questions about whether bonds are really working as a non-correlated asset in today’s markets, it’s worth considering what role life insurance can play,” Samuelson said.

A Big Growth Market. Financial professionals who can effectively tell this story and distribute more life insurance policies as part of a retirement strategy stand a chance of significant growth. “Today, the total amount of cash value in all fixed life insurance policies is about $1 trillion,” Samuelson said. “There are some Vanguard funds out there today with more than that. It’s a huge opportunity to build a business and differentiate yourself.”